Call Center
The best way to keep your call center running at optimum levels is to measure call center metrics using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Call center metrics such as KPIs offer a wealth of information about agent performance, call center effectiveness, and the way your call center runs.
Incorporating standard call center metrics into your decision-making process is the best way to monitor agent performance and gain valuable insights into agent performance and customer satisfaction. Improving call center metrics starts with setting goals based on industry-standard benchmarks and customer satisfaction rankings.
Here’s what you need to know about effectively measuring call center metrics using KPIs.
What are call center metrics?
Call center metrics are formulas used to measure agent performance, effectiveness, and customer satisfaction. There are multiple call center metrics that can offer a wealth of insights into how well your call center runs. They let you know how each agent performs, how effective they are, and where they can improve. Here are some of the most important call center metrics.
Most call center metrics include an agent’s call volume and the average amount of time spent working after the call. KPIs also include callers’ average time waiting on hold and rate of call abandonment. Call center metrics also include average response times, transfer rates, and problem resolution on the first call. Other important metrics often include an agent’s average handle time and customer satisfaction scores among other things.
Using Call Center Metrics
Using KPIs to measure call center metrics involves gathering insights, analyzing data, and setting goals. KPI’s offer a wealth of information but that information is only beneficial if you know what to do with it. It’s important to set clearly defined goals for agents and for the call center itself. Then call center metrics such as KPIs can help your call center achieve or exceed those goals in practice.
Consider more than just paper when looking at call center metrics and KPIs. Sometimes, a long call is absolutely necessary to make a customer happy. Since happy customers are the end goal, the duration of this single call may not be relevant to the other metrics because it makes the agent look bad on paper. It’s important to consider all relevant data when determining the most relevant and important KPIs.
Look for correlations
It helps to identify correlations between KPIs when measuring call center metrics. Sometimes, they complement each other. For instance, long hold times may result in lower customer satisfaction ratings. Spotting this correlation can give you the fundamental knowledge to target customer hold times. Improving them may have a direct positive impact on customer satisfaction ratings. This is not always the case but there are many strong correlations between call center agent KPIs and customer satisfaction.
Measuring Call Center Metrics with KPIs
Measuring call center metrics using KPIs starts with setting clearly defined goals for agents and the call center. You’ll need to understand your KPIs and look for any correlations in the data to apply improvements. This will help you gain insights and identify areas of possible improvement. Don’t forget to consider more than just the data on paper. When a call results in a satisfied customer, there may be more to evaluate than just call time. Measuring call center metrics with KPIs can be both effective and efficient when applied as part of a comprehensive improvement plan to optimize call center performance.
